Personio Acquires Expense Management Platform Circula

Munich – YPOG advi­sed Perso­nio on its acqui­si­tion of Circula, an expense manage­ment plat­form. The tran­sac­tion expands Personio’s offe­rings to include expense manage­ment and brings toge­ther HR, payroll, and expense proces­ses on a single platform. 

Perso­nio is a leading Euro­pean plat­form for human resour­ces manage­ment and payroll proces­sing for small and medium-sized busi­nesses. Foun­ded in Munich in 2015, the company serves more than 16,000 busi­nesses that coll­ec­tively employ 1.6 million people. Perso­nio has more than 1,500 employees at 6 loca­ti­ons across Europe.

Circula was foun­ded in Berlin in 2017 and offers a plat­form for expense manage­ment. It covers travel expen­ses, corpo­rate cards, accounts paya­ble, and employee bene­fits. More than 3,000 compa­nies and 250,000 users use Circula. 

The goal of the tran­sac­tion is to conso­li­date both compa­nies’ offe­rings in the areas of human resour­ces manage­ment, payroll, and expense manage­ment onto a single inte­gra­ted plat­form. This is inten­ded to create the first Euro­pean plat­form to combine these product offe­rings under a single provi­der. Both compa­nies plan to further deepen the inte­gra­tion of their data and busi­ness proces­ses. Finan­cial details were not disclosed. 

“Perso­nio is setting the pace for inno­va­tion in Germany. This tran­sac­tion demons­tra­tes that German tech­no­logy compa­nies are not only acqui­si­tion targets but also acqui­rers and conso­li­da­tors, and that exper­tise and value crea­tion remain in Germany and Europe. We thank the Perso­nio team for their contin­ued trust in yet another project of great stra­te­gic importance,” says Dr. Johan­nes Janning, part­ner at YPOG.

A YPOG team compri­sing members from all offices advi­sed Perso­nio on the nego­tia­tion of the tran­sac­tion docu­men­ta­tion, legal and tax due dili­gence, and the struc­tu­ring of the acqui­si­tion. YPOG had previously advi­sed Perso­nio in May 2026 on the acqui­si­tion of the recrui­ting AI startup aurio and in July 2025 on the restruc­tu­ring of its global employee stock owner­ship program. 

Perso­nia Consul­tant: YPOG

Dr. Johan­nes Janning (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Cologne
Jörg Schr­ade (Tax), Part­ner, Munich
Dr. Tim Walter (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Cologne
Janic Kaba Salce­das (Tran­sac­tions, Corpo­rate), Asso­ciate, Cologne
Nina Ahlert (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Cologne
Paul Haren­berg (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Cologne
Dr. Jacob Schrei­ber (Tax), Senior Asso­ciate, Munich
Dr. Lutz Schrei­ber (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Part­ner, Hamburg
Matthias Kres­ser (Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Miriam Peter (Tran­sac­tions, Corpo­rate), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Florian Witt­ner (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­ciate, Hamburg
Char­lotte Petrasch (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Helena Dierckx (Tran­sac­tions, Corpo­rate), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Lea Ossmann-Magiera (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Laura Franke (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Project Lawyer, Cologne

The inter­nal team was led by Malgosia Zietara-Miller (Gene­ral Coun­sel) and supported by Dr. Katrin Geiger (Head of Corpo­rate and Risk).

About YPOG

YPOG stands for You + Part­ners of Game­ch­an­gers. The leading law and tax advi­sory firm supports foun­ders, inves­tors, compa­nies, and funds in Germany and inter­na­tio­nally in brin­ging visio­nary ideas to life within the tech ecosys­tem and in dyna­mic future markets.
YPOG advi­ses on the struc­tu­ring of venture capi­tal and private equity funds, finan­cing rounds, and complex tran­sac­tions, as well as on regu­la­tory and tax issues rela­ted to digi­tal assets and finan­cial inno­va­tion. As a stra­te­gic part­ner, YPOG deve­lops prac­ti­cal solu­ti­ons of the highest legal quality. The firm combi­nes legal and tax exper­tise with legal tech, digi­tal work­flows, and AI-based systems to deli­ver effi­ci­ent and scalable advice. 

www.ypog.com